Such Good Girls: The Journey of the Holocaust's Hidden Child Survivors - Paperback

by R. D. Rosen (Author)

Edgar Award-winning mystery novelist R. D. Rosen tells the story of the hidden children who survived the Holocaust through the lives of three girls hidden in three different countries--among the less than 10 percent of Jewish children in Europe to survive World War II--who went on to lead remarkable lives in New York City.

Only one in ten Jewish children in Europe survived the Holocaust, many in hiding. In Such Good Girls, R. D. Rosen tells the story of these survivors through the true experiences of three girls.

Sophie Turner-Zaretsky, who spent the war years believing she was an anti-Semitic Catholic schoolgirl, eventually became an esteemed radiation oncologist. Flora Hogman, protected by a succession of Christians, emerged from the war a lonely, lost orphan, but became a psychologist who pioneered the study of hidden child survivors. Unlike Anne Frank, Carla Lessing made it through the war concealed with her family in the home of Dutch strangers before becoming a psychotherapist and key player in the creation of an international organization of hidden child survivors.

In braiding the stories of three women who defied death by learning to be "such good girls," Rosen examines a silent and silenced generation--the last living cohort of Holocaust survivors. He provides rich, memorable portraits of a handful of hunted children who, as adults, were determined to deny Hitler any more victories, and he recreates the extraordinary event that lured so many hidden child survivors out of their grown-up "hiding places" and finally brought them together.

Front Jacket

Sophie Turner Zaretsky survived the Holocaust without even knowing she was Jewish, while her terrified, widowed mother worked for a Nazi in Poland as a "Christian" bookkeeper. Flora Hogman, orphaned by the Final Solution, was shuttled through southern France, from convents to the homes of one Christian family after another, clueless about her real identity. Carla Lessing and her family hid upstairs in the apartment of a defiant Dutch barber who protected them for more than two years while cutting German soldiers' hair on the first floor.

Sophie, Flora, and Carla survived not only the Holocaust--among the mere 10 percent of European Jewish children who did--but their own survival as well. In Such Good Girls, Rosen traces their lives from traumatic childhood to triumphant adulthood, following each of them to New York City, where they slowly emerged from the devastation of their early years to devote their careers to helping others. It was there, in 1991, that they played important roles in the groundbreaking event that, for the first time, brought together hidden child survivors scattered around the world.

A chance meeting with Sophie sent author R. D. Rosen on a journey to grasp the scope of Nazi extermination of Europe's Jews and to honor hidden children, the very last generation of survivors to have witnessed the Holocaust firsthand.

--Thane Rosenbaum, author of The Golems of Gotham and Second Hand Smoke

Back Jacket

Sophie Turner Zaretsky survived the Holocaust without even knowing she was Jewish, while her terrified, widowed mother worked for a Nazi in Poland as a "Christian" bookkeeper. Flora Hogman, orphaned by the Final Solution, was shuttled through southern France, from convents to the homes of one Christian family after another, clueless about her real identity. Carla Lessing and her family hid upstairs in the apartment of a defiant Dutch barber who protected them for more than two years while cutting German soldiers' hair on the first floor.

Sophie, Flora, and Carla survived not only the Holocaust--among the mere 10 percent of European Jewish children who did--but their own survival as well. In Such Good Girls, Rosen traces their lives from traumatic childhood to triumphant adulthood, following each of them to New York City, where they slowly emerged from the devastation of their early years to devote their careers to helping others. It was there, in 1991, that they played important roles in the groundbreaking event that, for the first time, brought together hidden child survivors scattered around the world.

A chance meeting with Sophie sent author R. D. Rosen on a journey to grasp the scope of Nazi extermination of Europe's Jews and to honor hidden children, the very last generation of survivors to have witnessed the Holocaust firsthand.